Steps

1.
Make a very rich deep dashi stock using bonito flakes and kombu (use 1.5 times the amount of bonito flakes and kombu that you normally use for making dashi stock for 1 liter of water.)

2.
Add the eggs to 700 ml of dashi stock and mix well. Add the soy sauce, salt and cake flour and mix so that there are no lumps. Chill the batter in the refrigerator.

3.
Chop the octopus into 42 pieces. Chop the green onion and red pickled ginger. If there are any big tempura crumbs, crush them.
Prepare the oil.

4.
Heat up a takoyaki grill to about 230-250°C. Generously grease the wells and fill them about 80% with batter. Add the octopus and other chopped ingredients.

5.
Pour in more batter so that each indent is overflowing. Cook while pushing the batter into the wells, and turn frequently to cook the takoyaki.

6.
When the surface is crispy and the inside light and fluffy it's done. Transfer to serving plate, add the toppings of your choice and enjoy while piping hot!

7.
You can use the leftover dashi stock seasoned with a little light soy sauce and salt as a dipping sauce too.

Story Behind this Recipe

My husband is from the Kansai region and just loves takoyaki. I tried several times to recreate the ones we've had at a certain restaurant in Osaka, and after many experiments and frequent trips there to analyze their takoyaki, we came up with this recipe.The flavor of the dashi stock really comes through, and the insides are creamy. I was finally able to create our ideal takoyaki bites!

Helpful Hints

Make the dashi stock in advance and chill it well. A rich flavored dashi is the key to the flavor of the takoyaki.If you want to make the insides very creamy, use 150 g of cake flour.To make the outsides extra crispy, use a generous amount of oil.If you add cabbage and sakura shrimp it will become an okonomiyaki, so we just use these 4 ingredients for the filling.